^ v 



mm^^.-^ 




Book Llli 



je 



CONTES TED ELECTION CASES. 
RADICAL 

Despotism and Usurpationr^ 

A RADICAL CONGRESS STRIKES DOWN THE 
PRINCIPLE OF POPULAR REPRESENTATION. 




The People Denied the Choice of their 
Representatives. 

^7— 

By Hon. M. C. KERR, of Indiana, 

One of the Committee on Elections^ House of Representatives, 



The true character and real animus of a dominant party 
cannot be better determined than by a careful inquiry into 
its conduct in election contests before Congress. In these 
cases its powers are suprenie, its judgments are unalterable, 
except by itself; from its decisions there is no appeal, whether 
they are right or wrong, judicial or partisan, fair or corrupt. 
Under the Constitution '' each House shall be the judge of 
the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own mem- 
bers." It is thus in the power of a reckless majority in 
Congress, by the mere force of numbers, under the exacting 
discipline of party, freed from the feeling of individual re- 
sponsibility, and animated by a lawless thirst for power, to 
violate with impunity the rights of persons by excluding 
them from seats to which they have been legallj'' elected; to 
' override the rights and silence the voice of constituencies by 
denying them representation in the person of the choice of 
the majority ; to render our system of popular elections a 
cheat and delusion, and to transfer political power from ma- 
jorities to minorities. It must be perceived by every citisiQH 

\V.A» 



4^ 



^r>^ 



that this is a dangerous and fearful power. The letter of the 
Constitution does not prescribe how, or in what spirit, it shall 
be exercised, but reason and justice do. It should be exer- 
cised with the utmost judicial fairness and impartiality. The 
"politician, legislator, or statesman invested with such power, 
should become for the time the upright, severe, and incor- 
ruptible judge. No great party will habitually disregard or 
violate this elear-and plain duty, unless it-has become itself 
reckless, immoral, and corrupt, and loves power more than 
it does justice and law, and prefers rather to promote the 
selfish interests of its partisans than to protect the sacred 
right of representation and maintain"' the Constitution. In 
these views most fair and just men will readily concur. 

Then let us inquire briefly into the history of parties in 
connection with these cases, and let the parties stand or fall 
by the record. 

During the seventy-two years of our congressional histpry 
prior to March 4, 1861, the country was with fitful intervals 
mainly under the control of the great Democratic party, and 
of its ideas and policy. During that entire period, embra- 
cing thirty-six Congresses, the conduct of two great wars, 
and many of the most eventful crises in our national history, 
there arose only one hundred and five contests in the House 
of Representatives, or less than an average of three in each 
Congress or period of two years. These contests in the 
aggregate did not cost the people over $150,000, including 
compensation to contestants and all incidental expenses to 
the Government. The trial of these cases was uniformly 
conducted with decent propriety and with deliberation, and 
decisions were made with general judicial fairness after free 
and reasonable discussion. The records of the House show 
that, in their adjudicatien, it was governed by legal rules 
and principles, not by mere arbitrary and partisan discretion, 
or by the shifting and inconsistent demands and necessities 
which always arise from such discretion. 

But how is it changed since I Mark the difference I It is 



most significant. It should startle the country. It betrays 
motives, character, demoralization. It demands change and 

^reform. The Republican party came into power in the 
House March 4, 1861, less than ten years ago. Yet in that 
short period there have been eighty-nine contests, ov an average 
of eighteen contests to each Congress. The aggregate cost to 
the people of all these controversies, in compensation to par- 
ties, in the expenses of itinerating election committees, in 
the printing of evidence or trash, and in other incidental 
expenses, will not fall short of seven hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars ! How shall we account for this most reraark- 
abJe change? Is it not the logical and bitter result of the 
vicious general policy and conduct of Radicalism ? Are not 
these simple and iticontrovertible facts pregnant with severest 
condemnation of that party? 

But this alarming multiplication of contests, and their 
unparalleled expense to the people are by no means the 
only or greatest evils resulting to the country from their exist- 
ence. Their chief injury is done to our institutions and to 
the public morals. In their adjudication by the House, even 
the outward forms of decent judicial deliberation have been in 
great part discontinued. They are nearly always decided 
upon thinly disguised partisan considerations. The rules and 
principles of law justly applicable to such cases, and the 
respectable precedents in the judicial and legislative records 
of the country, are alike disregarded. Fair and voluntary 
popular majorities, no matter how large or triumphant, are 
brushed aside as of no value upon some pretext afforded by 
mere technicality, or some vague or frivolous allegation 
made by a desperate, partisan who relies upon the numerical 
power of his political friends in the House to sustain him. 

Thus corrupt partisans, bad men, mere worthless adven- 
turers, are directly encouraged by their Republican friends 
in the House to get up contests and claim seats to which 
they are not elected, and oppose the admission of legally 
elected Democrats upon scandalously inBuflSfjient jsjroimds, 



both of fact and law. Yery often, and sometimes eren to 
their own surprise, they are sustained, in violation of the 
law and the right, and at the expense of decency and the 
self-respect of the House. Many times, even when seats 
are refused them, they are allowed to prevent the admission 
of Democrats to the seats to which they are chosen — some-' 
times until the Congress has well nigh expired, and some- 
times prevent their admission entirely. All of these worth- 
less, baseless, prospecting cases, are gotten up by political 
frier is of the majority in the House. The few contests- 
brought up by Democrats are fair and ordinary contests, or 
♦ cases in which reckless or partizan Eepublican officials in 
the States have, in defiance of the Jaw, given certificates of 
election to their political friends, as in the cases of Switzler 
against Dyer, from Missouri, and Eeid against Julian, fronv 
Indiana, in the present House. Both S-witzler and Reid, 
Democrats, were duly elected by clear majorities, and both, 
were denied certificates of election by Republican State- 
oificials, contrary to law, and certificates were given to Dyer 
and Julian in defiance of law, who thus gained admission to 
the seats, and obtained the advantages for corrupt combina- 
tions afforded by possession, and at length were confirmed 
in the seats by the arbitrary orders of the House. In this- 
way violence is done to one of the most cherished and vital 
principles of our Government— the right of representation ^ 
gross wrong is done to the personal rights of members 
elected by Democrats, m«re political adventurers are admit- 
ted to seats, whereby the House becomes in considerable 
part self-constituted., and ceases to be a Congress elected by 
the people, or to express the sentiments or obey the wishes 
of the intelligent and virtuous people of the country. 

These great evils long since became so - apparent that 
many of the more fair and independent members of the 
Republican press felt called upou to denounce themt and to 
demand reform; but their demand is unheeded,. and the evil 

ip<>y<»iocaa PioTnta^irTKaa tln»a\r are o,f>nrl«mr)i(3d aliRO bv inrlivir}- 




ual Bepublicans. To the opinions of one of tbese of great 
ability and distinction, it is proper to refer in verification of» 
what has just been stated. Oa October 26, 1869, a paper 
was read before the '' American Social Science Association," 
at New 'York, by Hon. Henry L. Dawes, [Radical^] of Mas- 
sachusetts, who has been a member of the House for foiir 
teen years, and was himself many years Chairman of the 
Committee on ElectionSj in which he usfes the following lan-> 
guage on the general subject of contested electioDs: 

"All traces of a judicial character in these proceedings 
are fast fading away, and the precedents are losing all sanc- 
tion. Bach case is coming to be a mere partisan struorgle. 
At the dictate of party majorities the Corrmittee must fight, 
not follow, the law and the evidence; .and he. will best meet 
the expectations of his appointment who can put upon rec 
ord the best reasons for the course^ thus pursued; This ten- 
dency is so manifest to those in a situation^) o'bserve, that 
it has ceased to be questioned, and is now but little resisted. 
There is no tyranny like that of majorities, and the efforts in 
the past to resist them, and to hold the judgments of the 
Committee of Elections up above the 'dirty pool of party 
polities, have encountered such^bitter and unsparing denun- 
ciation, and such rebuke for treason to party fealty, that 
they are not likely often to be repeated. The fruit that fol- 
lows such seed is too certain for doubt. The whole proceeding 
must sink into contempt. Self-respect as well as legal at- 
tainment will soon retire from service upon a committee 
required, in the name of law and under the cloak of judicial 
sanction, to do the work of partisans." 

Mr. Dawes further says: 

*' When political ends are to be gained through the forms 
of a contested election there will be no lack of material or 
disposition ; and nothing more certainly attests the prostitu- 
tion of this tribunal, or is rnore justly calculated to awaken 
apprehension, than the astonishing increase of the number 
of contests within the last few years. Another fact disclosed 
by this record finds no other explanation than is here given. 
lliose with the minority in Congress [Democrats] seldom contest. 
A belief that the court is fached with a ruling majority, and 
has its work to do, tells plainly enough upon the number 
ftnir} pob+'ic»l ftflfiliHtionp of cont/efitonts, vajPtly inf^rea-siri;^ 



th.G\Y numbet' from the one side, and in like manner dimin* 

i^ing the list from the other." ,. . 

These statements, made by so distinguished a Kepublican^ 
are not more startling in themselves than their utterance is 
creditable to his boldness. That his own conduct) during 
his \ong service on that committee and in the House, was 
very seldom ^t variance with that of his political friends, 
the imperious and tyrannical Republican majority, is perhaps 
due to the very facts which he has given. He may be ac- 
cepted as stating at once the reasons for his past conduct 
and his excuse for doing no beiter in the future when he says : 
''There is no tyranny like that of majorities) and the efforts 
in the past to resist them, and to hold the judgments of the 
Committee of Elections up above the dirty pool of party 
politicd,) have encountered such bitter and unsparing denuncia- 
tion, [from Republicans,] und such rebuke for treason to parly 
fealty, that the'g are noi likely often to be repeated.'^'' 

The people should remember that such conduct never dis* 
graced our institutions, or the House of Representatives^ 
uhtil after the ascendency of Radicalism. It is the logical 
outgrowth of the policy and conduct of that party. The 
only effective remedy, therefore, will be found in the repu- 
diation of both the party and its corrupting policy. If, in 
important matters' of this kind, so directly affecting the' 
safety of our institutions, the individual members of the Re- 
publican majority have become as mere cogs in a great 
wheel, and have lost all individuality and manly indepen- 
dence of action, and have no will or power to resist the un^ 
just decrees of a reckless and lawless majority, all just men 
will agree that it is time they were left at home, and others 
were entrusted with these important duties. This is the 
condition of the Radical party to-day. Its bad elements 
control its actions and shape its practical policy. 

Out of the partisan, cruel, and revolutionary policy of 
reconstruction, some of the greatest and most corrupting 
evils of this day have come upon our country. In nothing 



7 

is this more impressively true than in the matter of con- 
tested elections. Republican policy in the South has been a 
nursing-mother for a brood of the meanest and most worth- 
less political adventurers, who have given bad governments 
and evils without number to the people of the South, and 
have done dishonor to the Republican party, Congress, and 
the country, by the baseless and shameless contests they 
have put upon the records of the House. They devise all 
sorts of pretexts, of general, vague, and frivolous charges of 
intimidation or violence, and of personal disloyalty in Demo- 
cratic members elect, and attempt to sustain them by mere 
trash, hearsay, rumors, ex parte statements, and shadowy 
partisan slang. For example : In the State of Louisiana are 
five Congressional Districts, every one of which was tri- 
umphantly carried by the Democratic party on November 3, 
1868, in the election of members of Congress, the majorities 
of the Democratic candidates being as follows : 

Louis St. Martin 12,827 

Calebs. Hunt 10,615 

Adolphe Bailey 8,931 

Michael Ryan 5,988 

Geo. W. McCraine 5,684 

Yet not one of these gentlemen was admitted to his seat 
in the House; and three of the Republican claimants were 
admitted in gross violation of law and decency, and the 
other two seats were declared vacant. Minority candidates, in 
utter contempt of the fundamental right of the majority to 
determine representation, were permitted by the Republican 
House to occupy seats in Congress. The same thing was 
done in other cases from other States. Numerous ca^es 
might be mentioned in detail to illustrate the truth of these 
remarks ; but it is unnecessary. The facts are notorious. 
All these outrages have been committed without even the 
poor excuse that the Republican majority in the House was 
small, and demanded to be increased by every practicable 
means. For ten years past it has been complete and over- 



i" ^ ... 



8 



whelming. These great wrongs have, therefore, had no ex- 
cuse or palliation, and simply evince the reckless, proscrip- 
tive, and intensely partisan character of the machinery by 
which the Eepublican party is controlled. They appeal to 
all just and fair men, as they regard free institutions, fair 
and equal laws, the purity of legislation, the importance of 
moral character and personal integrity in the representative, 
and the content and peace of the country, to rebuke such 
infamous conduct, and defeat the party that is alone respon- 
sible for these things. 

The value of elective government is gone if the fairly ex- 
pressed will of the electors can be habitually defeated and 
defied by an arbitrary majority in Congress. This has been 
done in numerous cases during the last ten years. The New 
York Tribune of the 13th of June last, referring to and con- 
fessing these wrongs, said : 

'' We tell gentlemen that we have had fully as much of 
this sort of thing as we can siand. We utterly and vehem- 
ently protest against assuming any more party responsibili- 
ties in behalf of carpet-bag Congressmen." 

But the voice of the press, the conceded disgust of good 
men throughout the country, the earnest appeals and remon- 
strances of the Democratic minority in Congress, are alike 
powerless to stop these wrongs. The remedy must come 
from the people in a change of representatives. We appeal, 
therefore, to them to arouse to a full sense of their duty in 
this behalf, and see to it that the next Congress shall be 
composed of more faithful servants than the present ma- 
jority. 

H. Polkinhorn k Co., Printers, D street, near 7th, WasWiigton. 



LBJL 'Oo 



i 



-^^ 




^^ 



